In 1999, Seattle
drew the world’s attention as protesters disrupted meetings of the World Trade
Organization. The protesters beat drums and chanted against many things.
Anti-corporation vitriol was a common theme.
Corporations
were not always targeted by populists, politicians or students wearing
butterfly costumes. Indeed, the history of the corporation—as a form of social
organization with legal recognition similar to that given to an
individual—predates t-shirt tie-dying by 2,000 years. Corporation-like entities
existed in ancient India and Rome.
